Ronnie Dunn — one half of Grammy-winning country music duo Brooks and Dunn — ripped President Obama’s gun control-focused response to Sunday’s terror attack in Orlando in a series of bitingly sarcastic messages posted to social media.
Speaking from the White House on Sunday afternoon after the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since September 11, President Obama avoided mentioning radical Islam and instead focused his response on the killer’s ability to obtain a gun.
Calling the attack an “act of terror and an act of hate,” Obama said that identified gunman Omar Mateen was a “person filled with hatred.”
“Over the coming days, we’ll uncover how and why this happens and we’ll go wherever the facts lead us,” Obama vowed.
But that response apparently wasn’t enough for Dunn, 63, who took to Facebook Sunday to blast the president for failing to mention the terrorist’s suspected ties to radical Islam. Mateen, who slaughtered 50 people inside the Pulse nightclub and injured at least 53 more, reportedly dialed 911 and pledged allegiance to the terrorist group ISIS either before or during the attack.
“The worst mass murder in American history attributed to Isis and Obama steps up to the microphone and implies that it will stop if guns are taken away,” Dunn wrote in the first of a series of messages on Facebook.
“So, a law is passed and we are ordered to turn our guns in (billions of them)…” Dunn wondered. “I bet criminals and ‘terrorists’/Jihadists will rush to turn their guns in. …now that’s leadership. UNBELIEVABLE.”
But Dunn didn’t stop there. He continued to defend gun ownership by engaging with his fans in the comments section of his initial post.
“Research the number of ‘shooters’ who have been on or were at some time on SSRI (prozac etc.) prescribed drugs. It’s not the gun Julie,” Dunn wrote in response to another commenter. “Next, assign the number of deaths to radical ideology. . 75% of ALL gun deaths in America are suicides. FACT.”
“What would’ve happened if the nations leader had walked up and said….’America, we are now going to offer public national anti terrorism seminars. After you take the courses and pass the tests you will be allowed to attain a carry permit…,” the musician added in another post. “Arm yourselves. We are OFFICIALLY, at war with a global, radical ideology.”
Dunn also wrote that Obama’s response was likely rooted in the fact that the president is a “liberal lawyer,” but stressed that he did not blame Obama for the attack, as some of his fans suggested in comments.
“Political preference doesn’t influence my opinion,” Dunn wrote. “I’m not selling politics, I’m making an observation.”
Brooks and Dunn is currently headlining a residency at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas through the end of March, 2017.
Read the rest of Dunn’s statement on his Facebook page.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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